Camassei, Andrea

Bevagna, Perugia, 1602 - Roma, 1649

Lupercalia

Ca. 1635. Oil on canvas

Lupercalia was a festival involving sacrifices to the two deities associated, respectively, with fecundity and childbirth: Pan and Lucina. As part of the celebrations, the men whipped their wives to make them more fecund. Two young musicians close to the scene of the sacrifice to the gods, as well as the statue on the altar itself, carry wind instruments characteristic of this type of festivity.

Within the large series of paintings dedicated to the history of Rome, this work and Meleager’s Hunt (P2320) belong to a small group of scenes from mythology and the history of Antiquity. This is undoubtedly the most mysterious group in the series -so much so, that the subject matter of some of its paintings has yet to be identified today. Such is the case, for example, with Masinisa Lamenting the Death of Sofonisba (P2280). Moreover, neither the significance of this group as a whole, nor its relation to the rest of the series is clear.

In recent decades, efforts have been made to establish the existence of a series of paintings related to the History of Rome -including the present work- that Philip IV’s representatives would have commissioned in that city and in Naples around 1634 for the Buen Retiro Palace. Today, twenty-eight extant works can be related to this project (most in the Museo del Prado or Patrimonio Nacional), along with another six mentioned in Charles II’s will but now lost or destroyed. This total of thirty-four paintings constitutes the largest group from the Retiro, including the Hall of Realms. The only larger group consists of mythological scenes that the king’s brother, Cardinal-Infante don Fernando, commissioned Rubens to paint for the Torre de la Parada. The size of the Roman group is the first indication of its importance in the new palace (Text drawn from Úbeda de los Cobos, A. in: El Palacio del Rey Planeta. Felipe IV y el Buen Retiro, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2005, pp. 169-170; 180-182).